


Keep Your Head Down

by sophinisba



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Drabble Sequence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-21
Updated: 2009-03-21
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just an old school "He's the king so you have to have sex with him" ficlet; Merlin POV, not explicit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep Your Head Down

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to claudia603 for enabling me in my desire to write this pairing.

Gaius is always talking about keeping your head down, says for a sorcerer it's the only way of keeping your head at all. And yet he's survived the past twenty years by staying as close to Uther as anyone outside the royal family. He's made himself essential, indispensable. What kind of lesson is Merlin supposed to learn from that?

Anyway, Merlin may have powerful magic but it's not like he can go back in time, is it? Not like he can go back to Ealdor. Uther knows who he is already, has an idea how much he means to Arthur.

*

Merlin likes that, knowing he means something to both of them, feeling both pairs of eyes on him while he pours the wine.

Some days Arthur complains that Gaius' errands take up too much of Merlin's time. "You're mine, you know. My father said you'd be my manservant. Gaius has no rights on you."

Some nights Gaius asks why he's come in so late. "Are they giving you extra work, beyond your assigned duties?"

Merlin shrugs, grins. "They're the ones who do the assigning. I can't exactly complain."

He wouldn't, anyway. Is it _his_ fault he's caught the King's attention?

*

The answer, he finds out soon enough, is that it doesn't matter. It's not his fault he's a sorcerer either, or that destiny's put him in the most dangerous place a sorcerer can be. And it's not flattering or thrilling, once there's no choice involved. It's Uther's command, Uther's hand, and even Uther's goddamn thumb is more powerful than everything Merlin is, strong enough to split him open and it _hurts_ but if he fights back or lets the magic fight for him it'll be his head. So he keeps it down, looks at his hands, sends his mind away.

*

Or he would, but Uther pulls his attention back with pinches to sensitive skin and words that expect an answer.

"The Prince values your person more than is wise."

"I'm sorry." He doesn't know for what, but he is.

"I don't care."

"Then why--?"

"That he might know how little you're worth."

"It won't work."

"You presume to tell me how to control my own son?"

"He values what's his, and all the more when it's threatened."

Strange to be speaking, even _reasoning_ while he writhes underneath this man, but knowing he's right is the only comfort he has.

*

The next day Merlin does feel worthless, and the fact that Arthur notices only makes it worse. (At first.) Because Arthur's possessive and Merlin's had enough of being possessed. Merlin wants comfort and Arthur has only rage.

But when the shouting's over, when the threats have been traded and King and heir have accused each other of every crime from perversion to treason, everyone is still alive, and the balance of power has shifted. Uther is worth less than he was before. Arthur and Merlin are more. It's not the end, not yet, but it's the start of something new.


End file.
